Tresha Ward on retaining good teachers as a school leader:
At the start of my first year as a principal, I hired a team of twenty one. By the end of the school year, only seventeen remained. Of the seventeen, only seven continued on into the following school year. While some of the seventeen were let go, I knew that too many of them had quit..
I felt frustrated and exhausted. I remember taking those seven remaining teachers out for dinner and asking them: “Why did you stay?” Their responses became my first leadership lesson as a new manager: They said: “We were the ones you invested in,” “we were the ones you trusted and gave leadership to,” and “we were the ones who you showed that you cared [about personally].”
This was hard to hear but true: these were the teachers who I invested in more, trusted, and encouraged, especially when they were struggling. I was thankful for this feedback. Moving forward, I tried each year to create this feeling for my whole team and not just a select few.
Jenn Scheiss on principal turnover – it’s not what you may have heard.
A lot of the Gates Network For School Improvement sites were sort of an open secret because no one can keep their mouth shut when then win something like this and have money about to rain down on them. But they’re public today.
More from Alan Golston on that.
Health insurance costs going up up up up up. $2300/head is a lot of money anywhere, especially in places with school funding crunches.
This is a really interesting interview with Francis Fukuyama.
When the vote is that razor thin isn’t everyone voting aye the decisive vote? Also, Betsy DeVos and school visits, always good for a debate.
